Lil Durk appeared in a federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles Thursday, where a judge denied his souped-up bid to be released on bond pending his Oct. 14 trial on charges he orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot that led to a man’s death.
Moments after the the Grammy-winning “All My Life” rapper heard the ruling, he was asked to enter a plea to the second superseding indictment filed in the case last week. “Not guilty,” he said while seated at a defense table wearing a beige jail uniform and knit kufi cap in keeping with him Muslim faith.
At the end of the hour-long hearing, the 32-year-old artist stood up and smiled broadly at a group of nearly two dozen supporters seated in the gallery. He raised his right hand to his heart and nodded at various family and friends before U.S. Marshals led him back into detention.
“He’s strong and focused,” the rapper’s dad, Dontay “Big Durk” Banks, tells Rolling Stone. “You saw the smile that was on his face, both during the time and afterwards, after the ruling. He’s still smiling. He’s still strong. He’s standing on his faith, you know, and believing that God will make a way for him.”
Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, had proposed paying Beverly Hills-based ARSEC Security to enforce a strict home detention program with around-the-clock armed guards while he prepares for his upcoming trial. He also increased the cash portion of his proposed bail package, adding $150,000 to the $1 million previously offered by Alamo Records.
In oral arguments, Banks’ lead lawyer, Drew Findling, said the “robust” proposal was more than adequate considering Banks has no prior criminal record. Findling said the circumstances of the case also changed when prosecutors filed their updated indictment last week. He said they “removed” two of the three “specific facts” in the prior indictment that purportedly connected Banks to the August 2022 shooting death of Saviay’a Robinson at a gas station near the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles.
Speaking to the judge, Findling said prosecutors not only eliminated the allegation that Banks “monetized and celebrated the death” with song lyrics, they also removed the allegation that Banks directed a co-defendant to pay “the bounty” for Robinson’s death. Findling argued the new indictment now hinges on only “sweeping generalizations” that Banks offered a bounty for the death of Robinson’s cousin, Tyquian Terrel Bowman, also known as Quando Rondo. (Prosecutors allege Banks wanted Bowman dead because he blamed him for the death of a childhood friend. Robinson was traveling with Bowman the day a group of alleged hitmen opened fire on Bowman’s car, killing Robinson.)
When it was his turn to speak, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello disputed the claim that the murder-for-hire indictment rises or falls on the lyrics no longer specifically cited. “This murder case is not about [Banks’] lyrics, and it’s not about his music. It’s about his conduct, and the steps he allegedly took when he allegedly dispatched hitmen to hunt, stalk and kill a rival,” Yanniello said. He also claimed the government hadn’t “conceded” anything.
“The government stands by the allegation that [Banks] did in fact commercialize his violence. But that’s a question for another day,” Yanniello said. He said the matter would be decided when the court takes up motions on the evidence to be allowed at trial.
Before she issued her ruling denying Banks’ bond, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Donahue said she had received a report claiming Banks “repeatedly used at least 13 other inmate phone accounts to make phone calls” from his detention center. She said it was a violation of the facility’s rules. She also said Banks appeared to be engaging in three-way calls.
Findling argued that inmates using other inmates’ phone accounts is a common practice inside federal detention centers. He said there was no evidence Banks was doing anything other than connecting with his family. The lawyer said he’s in regular contact with officials at Banks’ detention facility and that he’s heard “nothing but praise for Mr. Banks’ conduct” and his “commitment to his Muslim faith.”
The judge still cited the phone issue when she issued her ruling. She said while the practice of using other inmates’ phone accounts “might not be uncommon, it showed a disrespect for the rules, and that’s precisely the court’s concerns with regard to risk of flight.”
In denying Banks’ release, Judge Donahue said the charges against the rapper “remain the most serious, as reflected in the potential punishment.” According to prosecutors, the indictment’s charge of murder for hire resulting in death carries a mandatory minimum penalty of life in prison.
Speaking after the hearing, Findling tells Rolling Stone he plans to appeal the bail decision. He says the “only” remaining fact-based allegation left in the indictment is an Aug. 18, 2022, text in which Banks purportedly told a co-conspirator: “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.” Prosecutors claim the text shows that Banks was trying to conceal his involvement in the movement of the alleged hitmen.
“The superseding indictment is really only down to one specific fact. And it’s an out-of-context text message,” Findling, a prominent lawyer known for representing NBA YoungBoy, Cardi B, and President Donald Trump, says. “It’s just completely out of context. They don’t know what the meaning of it was. And other than that, there’s nothing that sets forth any direct evidence tying him to anything that’s alleged in the indictment.”
As Rolling Stone first reported back in December, Banks has denied since last year that he “sought to commercialize” the shooting at the center of the case. In the prior indictment, prosecutors alleged that Bank’s song “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy,” released in December 2022 with Babyface Ray, referenced Banks’ alleged revenge on Bowman. In the song, Banks raps, “Look on the news and see your son, You screamin’, ‘No, no.” Prosecutors claimed it was a reference to Bowman seeing Robinson’s dead body. At the prior bond hearing on Dec. 12, 2024, Findling argued that the song was recorded months before the shooting. He offered a sworn declaration from the song’s producer, Justin Gibson, supporting the point.
“The proverbial smoking gun is that this incident takes place, and then months later, Mr. Banks puts out a song to celebrate it and commercialize it,” Findling told the court in December. “That song was recorded approximately eight months before that incident took place. … We have all the time stamps from the producer. This took place not in August 2022, when the [shooting] took place. This music was produced, these lyrics performed by my client approximately seven months before in January of 2022.”
Findling and his co-counsel attacked the use of the lyrics in a prior motion to dismiss. Prosecutors then filed the second superseding indictment without any lyrics last week. A hearing on the dismissal motion is set for June 2.